The invention relates to a device for cooling hot liquid food items such as water to drinking temperature. The device comprises a cooling system containing a coolant and a cooling line carried through the coolant having an inflow for letting in the hot liquid and an outflow for the cooled liquid.
These types of cooling devices are employed for preparing meals for a baby or an infant, among other possible uses. When preparing such a meal, boiled hot water is conducted through the cooling device in order to cool the hot water to drinking temperature faster than cooling the water in the ambient air. WO 2004/070294 A1 discloses a prior art cooling device for this purpose. The cooling device described in this document comprises at its core a cooling system with a coiled cooling line immersed in a coolant. The cooling line has an upper connection fitting attached to an inflow and a lower connection fitting attached to an outflow. The inflow opens out at the upper side of the cooling system, the outflow at the lower side. A filling aid can be set onto the inflow side of the cooling system. The filling aid is a funnel-shaped object with a lower outflow for introducing the hot liquid into the inflow of the cooling line.
In one embodiment of WO 2004/070294 A1, the filling aid also functions as a measuring cup for measuring the quantity of liquid to be cooled. However, in order to be able to supply a defined quantity of hot liquid to the cooling system and for the hot liquid poured into the filling aid not to flow into the cooling line before the completion of the measuring process, it is necessary to have a valve which is closed during the process of filling and measuring the hot liquid in the filling aid, either at the outflow end or the cooling system at the inflow end. Otherwise the measuring process is falsified due to the hot liquid flowing out of the cooling line. Such falsification can lead to overfilling of a collection vessel designed for a specific quantity of liquid. Also, it is not ensured that the liquid flowing out of the cooling system is not over cooled, so that the prepared meal must be slightly warmed up again.
The underside of the prior art cooling system includes connection means to attach a collection vessel, for example a baby bottle. The cooled liquid food item flows into this vessel, delivered by the cooling line. The desired meal is subsequently prepared and administered to the baby or infant with the water at drinking temperature.
Other disadvantages the prior art cooling device include the difficulty handling and the difficulty of cooling a predefined quantity of liquid unless additional valves are utilized. With devices which come into contact with food it is also desirable to make the parts coming into contact with the food item easy to clean. Additionally, in the prior art cooling device when filling the hot liquid into the filling aid the remaining components of the cooling device must be held firmly to avoid tipping over the cooling device and having the hot water spill, unless the components are otherwise secured in place.
The foregoing example of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.